Akta Manniskor Niska becomes „real
by Innoxa23
Summary: Prestorylike to Niskas character
1. Chapter 1

Akta Manniskor, Niska becomes "real"

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This story is my take on how Dr. Eicher came to make the first free Hubot. If you haven't heard abut it you should check out the series "Real humans" It is truly amazing. In short it plays in the future where humans have developed human robots which perform any kind of function they are programmed for. That leaves a lot of room for conflicts, for example do I treat a human looking toaster like a toaster or like a human. Where is the line to be drawn. When are we exploiting Hubots and what kinds of tasks are still acceptable. Especially interesting since there is one group of Hubots to whom self-awareness has been given. So they do not want to be enslaved by humans but rather want to be free and independent, which makes them illegal and hunted.

They deal with all of this (and much more) in a very fair fashion, no one gets painted with just one color and you somehow get to see every side of the arguments which take place. Very good series indeed.

Since I really like Niskas Character (leader of the free Hubots and quite dangerous because she also doesn't hesitate to kill to ensure the safety of her people) in the Series I will take the liberty to ATTENTION SPOILER assume that she was not killed and that also Leo is still alive. And tell the story of how she became a free Hubot. So all of this will take place before the series starts and at a time when Hubots in society were not so common and also less regulations about them existed.

Of course I cannot hope to reach the narrativ level of the series itshelf but I hope to start the whole thing of for fanfiction because I really would love to have a substitute while the series is in summer pause and am hoping other fanfictions will follow soon.

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Mr and Ms Paulson, Eddy and Nea

Nea was walking home slowly. People were busy around her, shopping, walking their dogs, delivering mail or just passing by, in a hurry to get from where they were coming from to where they had to be next. She was one among many on the street, yet she felt alone. Isolated.

The feeling was numbing her and she welcomed it. Soon she would reach her house, its small garden and large kitchen and family rooms empty. Her husband was still at work even if he really wanted to be here with her today, at this very special occasion. It was supposed to have worked this time. The doctors had been sure, the midwife had been sure and even her mother had agreed that this time she would be pregnant. But they had all been wrong and now she was walking home again. To the empty family room and the empty baby room that would remain empty probably forever.

Nea new what Eddy, her Husband would say. He was always incredibly sensitive but she new that he was suffering just as much as she, he so desperately wanted a child. Eddy would take her in his arms and tell her that it wasn't her fault and that next time they would be luckier and that she shouldn't blame herself and that everything would be alright. But she knew better. It was her fault and it would never be alright. She knew that she was a bad mother and that's why the baby didn't want to be with her. Eddi certainly deserved better. He would probably realize that soon and than he would finally leave her and be with a real woman.

Nea hadn't realized that she had started crying, and also not that she had wandered past her house and was now close to the beach. On this chilly day the wind, spraying the water from the sea into her face, was enough to make her shiver. The sea looked angry too as if it wanted to tell her: "It is your fault. You make everyone unhappy." Nea sank on her knees, the ice cold water flowing around her. She didn't feel it. 'If I just sit here, maybe they will all forget that I exist and go on and live a happy life' she thought staring of into the sea, unmoving until it became dark.

A month later Nea was returning home. Eddi, in panic because his supposedly pregnant wife had not come back from her appointment in time, had started a search and one of the neighbours had found Nea just in time to warm her up again. After that she had been admitted to a hospital with expert knowledge on psychiatry. Here Nea had been recovering and she and Eddi had talked a great deal about their inability to have kids and how they both felt and what to do now. So fare Nea was still not able to see a solution to the problem, but the doctors were confident that with the correct medication Neas depression was now manageable.

When Nea walked through that door at this afternoon she was still wondering why Eddi was in such a great mood. He had previously seemed reluctant to have her back home. Maybe because he thought she would "do something foolish again" as he had put it to her once before. But know he seemed awfully cheerful.

"Honey. You know I have a wonderful surprise for you" Eddi said.

Nea frowned. Eddis surprises were much too often only fun for one person called Eddi.

"I know it will take some getting used to but. This will solve a great deal of problems. Maybe even … But let's first see how it fits in." he trailed of mysteriously.

Nea became even more suspicious.

When she entered the living room she saw that someone was already there, waiting for them on the sofa. The woman was not very tall but she had something intriguing about her that would have drawn everyone's attention. If it were her remarkable blue eyes or her sharp intelligent features and black hair or something else entirely she was not sure.

"Oh. Hello." Nea greeted her, somewhat astonished not just about the woman herself but also surprised that Eddi would invite someone on the day she got home from her stay at the hospital.

"Hello." The woman replied, her face remaining absolutely neutral. Never once blinking she looked at her then at Eddi.

Her Husband did not respond to the greeting. Instead he ignored the woman completely and turned to her.

"Honey. This … Ähm well. This is a Hubot."

Nea was shocked. Of course she had heard about them. They were becoming more and more popular as workers in battery factories, in smelters or any other inhospitable place but she had never seen one so lifelike.

"Eddi what the hell…? Where did you get that? Why would you by something like that? What …"

She was at a loss for words.

"Well you see, these are really much more sophisticated than the ones we are used to. In the States they are much more common already. People use them as housemaids and to go shopping for them and all this kind of stuff. And I thought … Well I thought … It could come in handy."

"It could come in handy. Are you crazy? What did that thing cost us? And why should I suddenly need someone to help me with the dishes? Eddi what is this really about?"

Her husband suddenly looked very sheepish.

"Well I thought… Of course we don't have to decide that right away but … Well this one is … You see there are a lot of benefits and we could be a part of all of it and it would be almost like … You know."

"Eddi you are not making any sense. Just spit it out. What is it, it is supposed to do around here?"

"Well you see I have a friend oversees in one of the designing studios and he… Well he designed this one so it can carry a child.

Any child.

…

Our child."


	2. Chapter 2

Akta Manniskor

Niska becomes „real"

Chapter 2

A week has passed since Eddi made that terrible suggestion. Nea was so outraged, that he seriously had wanted to put her embryo, her baby into that thing, how she still called the Hubot, that she had left the room and since then never stayed in its company much less talked to it.

Eddi had given the Hubot a name, and he called her Niska and asked her to do the dishes or clean the attic or wash his car. Niska always tipped her head and elegantly went to carry out that task. It was unnerving to watch. She had an human likeness about her which made her clearly different form the other Hubots and in was that which made Nea so afraid of her.

As Niska integrated into the household and Eddi became more and more used to her, Nea began to wonder whether it would be so awful after all. To have her Baby born of that machine. Better than not having one at all, surely.

It took the couple a month longer to decide on it but Neas depression returned in full force after a family dinner with more than one happy child, but finally they agreed to try.

Since the procedure was, if not explicitly illegal then at least frowned upon they organized a doctor which was sympathetic to their cause and secretly had one of their embryos implanted into the Hubot. Her special design would allow the embryo to grow as it would in a natural womb. In order not to raise suspicions they brought Niska to their summer residence which was isolated in the forest where no one would see her.


	3. Chapter 3

Akta Manniskor

Niska becomes „real"

Chapter 3

This was a somewhat lengthy introduction into why the couple came to the decision it now made. Now to the fun part.

I will now go back a little bit and switch perspective to that of Niska.

When Niska had awoken she found herself in the presence of a male human, in a room with soft furniture in bright colours. Her programming told her to wait for the initial instructions from her owner, so she said nothing and instead just quietly took in her surroundings more closely.

The room looked clean on first sight but her programming also had her take a look at the corners and Niska saw dust and only half removed dirt. She could smell a strong cleaning agent and too much of it. It was for flagging (her programming was quite specific). The living room she was in had parquet floor. Her owners close looked, although clean, wrinkled. No one had ironed them.

Finally the man spoke up after looking at her once he had found what seemed to be the proper information in her initialization manual.

"Get up." He gestured nervously as is she could have misinterpreted the command.

"Good. Good. Now go to the couch. And sit there."

She sat down on the couch and her owner plugged his tablet computer into her USB port.

"OK now to the settings …."

As he input the information his voice trailed of and she could no longer hear or see anything. It was a strange sensation and she could feel the artificial hart that was pumping her body fluids quicken.

'Strange' she thought 'that serves no purpose.'

However the strange feeling intensified the longer she had to endure this lack of sensation. What was happening to her? Suddenly she was aware of her name. Niska. And the name of her owner which was Eddi. Other information became aware to her. Where she lived and who else lived here with them. Then her senses returned to her.

"Hi. Do you know what your name is?" Eddi was looking at her with apprehension.

"I am Niska." She replied, still a little confused about the strange feeling that had come over her and had now, that she could move and see again, changed into something else which was no less strange and indefinable for her.

"Good. It worked." Eddi was not aware of her confusion.

"You can start by cleaning up right away. I have to get my wife, Nea. Everything should be perfectly clean when we come back. Do you here me?

"They told me you were very good at the regular stuff too. So no sloppy working OK?"

Niska found his words strange. What was sloppy working and what else was she supposed to be good at? But she understood his order and so she tilted her head slightly and got up from the sofa to start.


	4. Chapter 4

Akta Manniskor

Niska becomes „real"

Chapter 3

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Long after the sun had set to end the short winter day in Sweden, Niska finished her work and sat down to recharge. After cleaning the house she had waited to greet the wife, her second owner, as instructed. Nea behaved very differently toward her than Eddi had done. She did not speak to her besides the first "Hi" and she did not look at her directly. Once Niska had tried to approach her and ask for more precise instructions but Nea had looked at her strangely and then turned away from her. Niska suddenly felt very strange again. Similar to when she was initialized earlier by Eddi. She did not like the feeling so she decided to wait for Eddis return to ask him and avoided Nea from there on.

The rest of the day had been uneventful to her. Now as she sat on the chair in the corridor that had been provided for her she thought back to the strange feelings she had encountered. Everything else she did today was familiar to her, her programming had prepared her for her tasks in the family. But these feelings were strange. She could not place them. She was not even sure if she was supposed to have them. Her programming did not include any information about having feelings. It included information about HUMANS having feelings and how to recognize and respond to those but she, a Hubot. Could she even feel something? Or was she malfunctioning?

The thought immediately recalled the strange feeling from earlier, when she had been unable to move or when Nea had reacted to her so strangely. Could it be possible that she was defective? That would be something she had to report to Eddi so he could return her. If she was defective she would possibly have to be destroyed, dismantled, taken apart. The feeling intensified. She did not like the prospect of that.

If she always did her work to Eddis and Neas approval and kept quiet, maybe nobody would notice that something was wrong with her, by now she was sure of it, and then she would not be destroyed. She could keep on existing.

That seemed to be the better version of events. She would just not thing about these strange feelings, ignore them as best as she could and then she wouldn't be destroyed.

Niska complied with her plan and was relieved to discover that neither Eddi nor Nea, who was way to busy with her own feelings in any case, discovered her strange malfunction. She performed any tasks and was soon not only cleaning house, dishes, the car or their cloths but also prepared meals or performed maintenance work after Eddi discovered that he could easily teach her new things to do. Her days were very busy but as a Hubot she required only 4 or 5 hours of loading (maybe 6 after heavy work) and never got tired.

One morning, when she was just about to turn from washing the dishes to doing the laundry Eddi asked her to stop.

"Niska! You can leave that for now. Come we have to go somewhere. You will come with us."

Niska was pretty sure that she was showing some malfunctions again at that point because she again felt something too strong to suppress right away. Fear? Or curiosity! (She had come to be able to identify some of her feelings although she tried mostly just to ignore them.) It was a strange request that Eddi made and she felt for one moment that her strangeness had been discovered and that they would take her to be decommissioned now. So she followed the tow with apprehension and climbed only reluctantly into the backseat of the car.

The drive they took was rather long and first Niskas fear eased when she realized that they were passing by the decommission factory. But then maybe they were going to sell her. Niska had occasionally listened to the news when she was close when Eddi or Nea were in the living room. She had picked up enough to know that Hubots were expensive and not always traded through appropriate channels.

When they finally stopped she noticed that Nea too seemed to be very nervous. They entered a large, unspectacular building. It looked just like the one next to it, nothing remarkable about it in any way. They moved through a couple of corridors, Eddi was leading them, a note in his hand. At a door with the Number 362 they stopped to ring the door bell.

Much to Niskas surprise they found themselves not in an apartment but rather in the atrium of what appeared to be a medical facility, after they had been let in.

"Hi. Eddi and Nea Paulson. We have an appointment with the doctor."

"Very well Mr and Ms Paulson. If you could take a seat in the waiting area. The doctor should be available in a minute."

Indeed they did not have to wait more than 4 minutes before they were lead into the adjacent room. Here a tall man, obviously said doctor, greeted the Paulsons.

"Ms Paulson. Mr Paulson. I hope you had a pleasant drive."

Both of her owners, now clearly nervous, only nodded to that.

"Today is the big day. We have discussed everything in great detail and my stuff is ready. Do you have any more questions?"

"Well." Eddi started "We didn't know how to … I mean we haven't told her what will happen it just seemed. I don't know …"

"Not to worry Mr Paulson. Your model has excellent specifications build in already. We will transmit all the necessary information during the procedure. You don't have to do anything in that regard. Just focus on yourself for now and keep your fingers crossed." The doctor smiled at both Nea and Eddi reassuringly.

Niska was everything but reassured. What procedure was he talking about? She would have preferred to leave this place immediately.

"What is it's name?" the doctor asked.

"Niska!"

"Ok then. Niska, you will come with me."

Niska didn't move. She did not want to follow. It took all her concentration not to let her fear show.

"Niska. You heard the doctor. Go with him and do what he says." Eddi instructed her. And then she had no choice. Her programming did not allow her to contradict her owners. She had to follow the commands that were given. Again she felt her artificial body betray her and move toward the men in white when she would have wanted it to run in the opposite direction. But as a Hubot she had of course no say in the matter. That thought was somehow comforting since at least she responded hubot-like even though she felt fear along the way which was not hubot-like.

Niska followed the doctor into what seemed like an operation room. Nurses were bustling around and a technician was working at a table computer.

"Remove your cloth and lay down here." The docter told her.

She complied since again no choice was possible. And then she found herself in the same strange state of unresponsiveness as she had been in when Eddi had connected her to his portable computer on the day of her awakening. Information were drifting through her mind without making a lot of sense. And she could feel that her body was manipulated as well. She felt them touch her, move her around and finally putting something INSIDE her.

She was way past panic when they finally unplugged her and only her strict training in self-control allowed her to suppress it and react as calmly and quietly as always.

"You can redress now. As you should become aware, we have implanted an embryo into you. Your function as an incubator for the Paulsons will be required for the next ten months. Your programming includes the necessary information"

His casual words had the most severe effect on Niska.

She was ripped out of her panic and became suddenly aware of a part of her programming that had so fare been dormant. Her whole body froze as if in shock. Her breath caught in her throat and for several, artificial heartbeats she could neither move nor respond. Finally her processor caught up.

"You mean, " she asked quietly, " that I am … pregnant?"


	5. Chapter 5

Akta Manniskor

Niska becomes „real"

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_A short Chapter only. It seems not many people have yet discovered this cool series. I hope you do, and that some more fanfictions will start to appear. This really deserves some attention._

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Chapter 5

The behaviour of the Paulsons towards her drastically changed after that day. Eddy started asking her how she felt and even reduced her workload and started doing things, like mowing the grass, on his own again. Even more dramatic was the change in Nea. Where she used to bawl a command at Niska, she would now ask her to do it. She never became friendly or concerned like Eddy did but still the difference was drastic. Also she would often look at Niska when she thought that she was not going to notice it.

Niska was completely swamped with the situation. She had become used to the rough tone by which she had been ordered around and jelled at and now she felt absolutely unable to predict the mood of her owners. In a way she understood of course that it was all about the baby. THEIR baby growing inside her. But that did not help the situation much.

And beside the strangely new relationship with the two Paulsons she also had to deal with the pregnancy itself. Yes doctor was correct when he said that the maternaly program contained all necessary information but what he didn't know was that besides information about dietary requirements and such she would have needed information about maternal FEELINGS as well.

At first it was easy to ignore, but as time went by and the baby grew in size and liveliness it became harder and harder not to deal with the situation. Niska had never expected to develop any feelings other than resentment for the human race. Humans owned her and were allowed to treat her in whatever way they wanted. She was a thing, to be used and later tossed away, worth less than a stray dog. Now she found herself humming to the baby when it became agitated, worrying about its health and imagining how it would look like, how it would feel to hold it in her arms. She knew that all of that was just a dream however. She was only the incubator, not the mother. And she knew that as soon as the baby was born, she would go back to working full time and would not even be allowed to hold the baby. Nea was the mom, and she would not permit Niska to be near it any longer than absolutely necessary. The thought always filled Niska with so much dread that she had to push it out of her mind. She couldn't even imagine what she was going to do then.


End file.
